Choices
by Reese M
Summary: Story On Hold: Ororo's life has been turned upside down by the sudden return of Logan after ten long years. What will her life be like now that he's back, and how will her choices affect the lives of her children and partner.
1. Life Unknown

****Disclaimer**** I do not own any of the X-Men, nor do I make money off them. I do however own the OCs of Alexandria and Logan Jr. and Erik, but I don't make any money off them either.   
  
****Author's Note**** This is a sequel to my story "The Past Revisited", so I would recommend you read that one first. I should also warn those of you that have not read TPR, that Ororo and Jean are a married to each other in these stories.   
  
****  
  
The room was quite except for the soft breathing coming from the two people in it. Ororo sat in a chair next to the bed that her daughter, Alexandria, laid in. It had been nearly forty-eight hours since Alexandria, Logan, and Elizabeth had come back from the alternate reality they had been in. Alexandria had only spent a few days there, but Logan and Elizabeth had been trapped there for ten years. Ten long years, where a lot had happened in Ororo's life. She had remarried and had a wonderful life with Jean. Their children were growing up into wonderful young mutants. She was the leader of the X-Men during a time of great peace. Things were good.   
  
Good that is, until Alexandria had been taken from her. Taken right from her arms into a realm she still didn't understand anything about. She had listened in, thanks to Jean and their telepathic link, while Logan and Elizabeth told Charles and the others about the time line they had been taken to. Ororo's heart had hurt as she listened to Logan, the only man she'd ever truly loved, talk about how the Collector had tried to use him.   
  
She was listening now as Elizabeth explained that they thought that the Collector would try to use Alexandria in same way, and as Logan laid out the plan they had worked up to get Alexandria back here to where she belonged. A bolt of lightening flashed as thunder crashed outside the mansion. Powers or no powers. It did not matter that only the purity of how she and her daughter controlled energy was the only way to defeat the villain. What was he thinking putting their daughter's life on the line like that!   
  
*Calm down, love* Came Jean's voice in Ororo's mind. *You know he would have never put her in danger with out a way of making sure she would come out of it safely in the end.*   
  
Ororo's body began to relax and the skies out side began to clear. *She could have been hurt far worse then she is, Jean. We could have lost her forever.* Ororo could feel Jean flooding her mind with calm and loving emotions. A telepathic hug.   
  
*But we didn't, 'Ro. She's home and she's safe and she's going to be waking up soon.*  
  
Ororo nodded as if Jean were standing there with her arms around her. It felt so good to have her lover's thoughts in her mind, but she really wished the meeting would end so Jean could just come and hold her for a while. But as much as Ororo wanted the debriefing to end, she also dreaded it. As long as Logan was talking to Charles he wouldn't be talking to her. She wasn't ready to deal with that, with him, yet.   
  
The meeting finally came to an end a few hours later, but Ororo didn't know it. She had fallen asleep which had caused Jean to smile slightly at a very inappropriate moment. She muttered an apology and sank into the couch she was sitting it. Charles and the others who knew about her and Ororo's bond, just nodded and smiled back at her. Elizabeth had had a faint idea that it was Jean who was feeding the meeting to Ororo, so she figured it was Ororo who had caused the smile. Logan just looked at her oddly.   
  
Charles dismissed everyone and as they made their was out, Jean stopped Logan as he made his way towards the stairs that lead to the medical bay. She stood there with her small hand on his arm and felt his muscles tighten.   
  
"She isn't ready to talk to you yet." Jean warned softly.   
  
Logan turned and looked at her. He still couldn't picture them as a couple, or this so called alterative family they'd built. "Ain't going to bug her, darlin', wanna check on the kid."   
  
Jean let go of Logan's arm and watched as he leaned against the wall. "She's still sleeping, Logan. As soon as she wakes up and Hank says she can have visitors I'll send for you."   
  
"You tryin' to keep me from my kid, Jeannie?" Logan asked with a slight growl in his voice. He could smell the possessiveness coming from the petite redhead and he didn't like it. He didn't like it because he had no idea how to handle this. If he had come home to Ororo being with any other man, that he could have dealt with. He would have known exactly how to win his family back. But this? How was he going to fight another woman for the woman he loved?   
  
"Of course not, Logan. I just don't think now is a good time for this." Jean replied flatly before heading towards the stairs herself.   
  
Logan growled again. "What gives you the right to be settin' the rules darlin'?" Logan asked as he watched her step down onto the first step.   
  
Jean looked him right in the eyes. "They're 'my' family now, Logan. My wife, my daughter. That's what gives me the right."   
  
The tone in Jean's voice was unmistakable. It was a warning. Logan watched as she descended the stairs and then shook his head. She was telling him in her very 'Jean Grey' way that she would fight even him to keep her family intact. But there was something else, something someone who didn't know her so well would have missed. Her eyes told him that she would do what Ororo wanted, and her scent told him that she was deep down, scared to death of what that might be.   
  
"Don't do it, Logan." Came a soft British voice from behind him.   
  
Logan turned to look at her. "Don't do what, Betts?"   
  
Elizabeth walked over to her friend and hugged him. She rested her cheek on his and whispered in his ear. "Take off. Your home now. Stay and let the chips fall were they may, luv. You won't do anyone any good by running off like you use too."   
  
When Elizabeth stepped back Logan looked up at her with a smile. "I'm not goin' anywhere, Betts." Elizabeth nodded and kissed his cheek before heading up to her new room. Logan looked back at the stairs leading to the medical bay. "They're still my family too."   
  
Ororo woke up to the soft sensation of someone stroking her hair. She lifted her head from her folded arms, which were crossed across the edge of Alexandria's bed, and looked up to see Jean crouching next to her. She smiled faintly as Jean brushed her finger tips down her cheek.   
  
"You should go up and get some sleep in a real bed, Ororo. I'll stay with Lexie." Jean whispered softly.   
  
Ororo shook her head as she brought Jean closer to her. She wrapped her wife in her arms and buried her face in Jean's hair. Jean could feel the stress, fear, uncertainty, and tiredness in Ororo as she held her. She pulled back and took the other woman's face in her hands.   
  
"You need to rest, Ororo. You've been here since we got her back. Your so tired."   
  
"I'm fine my love. I'll sleep when we're sure she's alright."   
  
Jean just sighed as she pulled a chair over and sat next to her wife. There was simply no talking to this head strong Egyptian goddess sometimes. The two of them sat there for a while in silence. Ororo laid her head in Jean's lap and Jean stroked her hair softly. She could feel Ororo dozing off as she looked down at her. She was such a beautiful woman. It still amazed Jean at times. Sure people said she was beautiful, but she could never come close to the classical beauty of her wife. Inside and out. She didn't want to lose her, but she would go with whatever Ororo decided would make her happiest, and no matter what. They would always be her family. 


	2. Awake and Watching

The morning sun was bright and warm, and the skies were a crisp fall blue. Not that Ororo could see any of this from the underground medical room she was in, but she didn't need to see it, she could feel it as she stood in the corner of the room sipping her coffee. These were the types of days that Alexandria lived for, the kind of days where the two of them would just take off and fly above the trees of the woods, the house, and the lake. Ororo wondered if Alexandria could feel it too. Could she feel the fleeting warmth of the last few warm days of fall?   
  
"Come on baby girl. You've slept long enough dear one."   
  
Images of the fight flashed in Alexandria's mind. The Collector, Erik, her father, Elizabeth, her mother. They were all in her dreams. She tried to fight against the dreams, against the images but they kept coming, repeating themselves over and over again. She was stuck in an endless loop, a Monday night instant replay that pointed out every little detail she missed while living it. A play back with out sound until now. Now she could hear what was going on. She could hear the snikt of her father's claws, Erik's voice in her head, the collector laughing just before aiming his slivery ribbons at her mother.   
  
"Momma!" Alexandria shouted as she sat up in the bed sucking in air.   
  
Ororo rushed over to her daughter and wrapped her arms around the girl. "Shh, it's ok baby girl your home. It's all over now. Momma's here."   
  
Alexandria wrapped her arms around her mother as tightly as she could. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she buried her face in her mother's hair. She was afraid that this was just part of the dream. Afraid that if she let go and opened her eyes the images would start again.   
  
"Your home now, Alexandria." Ororo whispered into her daughter's ear as she stroked her hair with one hand and rubbed small circles on her back with the other. Slowly she felt her daughter begin to relax. She pulled back a little and looked into the child's eyes. She wiped away the tears that rolled down her soft cheeks and smiled at her. "Good morning, baby girl."   
  
Alexandria looked up at her mother and reached a trembling hand out to touch her face. She was real. The tears started a new as she hugged her mother again. "I thought I'd never see you again." She whispered.   
  
Ororo could feel her daughter tremble and just held her as she whispered soothing words to her. "I would have moved heaven and earth to get you back my dear girl, and we very nearly did."   
  
"Did we get him, Momma? Did it work?" Alexandria asked as she pulled back a little. Her mother cupped the side of her face as she nodded.   
  
"I'm very proud of you, Alexandria, you showed great bravery in what you did." Ororo said before kissing her daughter's forehead.   
  
Alexandria smiled a little. Hearing her mother say that she was proud of her meant a lot. More then her mother could even know. Slowly the world around Alexandria started to come into focus. She looked around the room and only saw her mother, but Jean's favorite black sweater was on a chair near her bed.   
  
"Momma, where's Aunt Jeannie?"   
  
"I'm right here sweetie." Jean walked over from the doorway and hugged Alexandria just as fiercely as Ororo had. "I felt you waking up and your mom's relief. Thought I'd come down and see how my littlest wind rider was."   
  
Alexandria smiled and started telling her mothers all about her time in the other realm. Neither woman missed the soft twinkle in the young girl's eye as she talked about the young man they had meet briefly while staring open mouthed at a not dead Logan. They also noted the soft loving tone in Alexandria's voice as she talked about seeing her father again and the time they spent together.   
  
"Where is daddy? He.. He did come back didn't he?"   
  
Logan was making his way back up the stairs after lurking unnoticed near his daughter's medical room. He'd heard her scream out for her mother and had rushed down the stairs. He had watched as Ororo comforted their daughter as she cried, hid when he smelled Jean coming, and then heard his daughter ask for her other parent. Logan knew he shouldn't have felt hurt over the fact that Alexandria had asked for Jean and not him, but the fact remained that he was.   
  
He walked into the rec room and right passed Remy as he walked out onto the patio. He slipped a cigar from his pocket and lit it. He stood there leaning forward on the stone railing of the patio and looked out over the grounds. He watched as a group of kids, which included Jubilee and Kitty, play near the edge of woods. His eyes seemed to fix on one kid in particular. A little boy with wild black hair and a scruffy build. His movements were graceful and slick as he moved in and out of the tree line. He seemed to literally pounce on the Lockheed as he and the girls played tag with Kitty's little purple dragon.   
  
An open bottle of beer appeared in front of him and Logan took it with a thankful nod. He'd smelled the Cajun coming and half smiled to himself. Even after all this time their scents, their mannerisms, were still the same. He hadn't known, or rather hadn't felt just how badly he had missed his friends until he was with them again.   
  
"Dat be your boy out ther' homme." Remy said as he leaned again the stone railing next to Logan.   
  
Logan watched the boy closer. He had some how known that. The boy looked like his mother. He had her grace, her coloring, her eyes. Logan took a long drink from his bottle and then a long drag off his cigar.   
  
"The petite, she is awake mon ami, why you not wit' her?" Remy asked once he was sure he wasn't going to get a reply form his feral friend about his son.   
  
"'Ro and Jeannie are with her. She don't need me hoverin' too." Logan answered after taking another drag on his beer.   
  
Remy nodded. After all the years of drinking, and covering for each other, and of just being friends he was one of the few people who could read between the lines with Logan. "She still love you, Wolverine. She love Jean too. Remy not going to lie to you mon ami, tis not going to be easy for anyone, but t'ose two kids still goin' need all t'ree of yous."  
  
Logan Jr. stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed his Uncle Remy standing by the house talking to someone he didn't know, but had a feeling he should. He watched the man closely with his little ten year old head tilted to the side. The way he moved, the way he stood, kinda reminded him of the way he moved and stood. Logan Jr. didn't even notice when Lockheed landed on his head. The little dragon craned his long neck over the top of Logan Jr.'s head and looked the boy right in the eyes. They stared into each other's eyes unblinking until the sounds of laugher made them both look over at the girls standing near the trees.   
  
"I think Lockheed is jealous of whatever it is that took your attention away from him, little brother." Kitty said as she walked over to Logan Jr. "What are you looking at?"   
  
Logan Jr. pointed at the patio near the house. "Who's that man talking to Uncle Remy?"   
  
Jubilee smiled as she walked up behind him. "Don't you recognize him, Logie?" She asked as she watched Logan and Remy on the back patio. "That's your..."   
  
"Hey Logan." Kitty said quickly, cutting Jubilee off before she said something she shouldn't. "didn't you tell Rogue that you'd give her a hand with lunch today?"   
  
A light went off in Logan's eyes and he seemed to forget all about his question. "Oh yeah! I'm going to watch little Raven and make sure she doesn't put cheerios up her nose while Aunt Marie makes hamburgers and hot dogs and tofu for momma on the grill."  
  
"Well," Kitty said as she removed Lockheed from the boy's head. "You'd better get a move on."   
  
Logan Jr. nodded and then with out another word took off towards the kitchen door. Kitty and Jubilee stood there and watched him until he made it around the corner of the house. Then Jubilee turned to the brown haired woman standing next to her and planted her hands firmly on her hips. "What'cha go and do that for?"   
  
Kitty turned and looked at her friend and sighed. "Jubes, don't you think something as important as introducing Logan to his father should be handled by Ororo?"   
  
"Oh," This time the flicker of understanding lit up Jubilee's eyes. "yeah guess you gotta point there Pride. Guess I'm just over excited about having Wolive back and feel like tellin' everyone."   
  
Kitty nodded and smiled at the other woman. "I know the feeling. Although, I don't think anyone is as excited to have him back as Lexie."   
  
"So is he coming?" Alexandria asked she tried to bat Hank's hands away from her.   
  
Jean laughed as the big blue beast tried and failed repeatedly to get a blood pressure cuff on the spirited teen's arm. "Yes, Lexie, I just sent for him and he's on his way. Give the man time to get down here from the rec room patio."   
  
"And please child, will you let Henry exam you." Ororo added as she stood at the foot of Alexandria's bed with her arms crossed across her chest.   
  
Alexandria giggled and then wrapped her arms around her big furry uncle. "Sorry Uncle Hank."   
  
Hank smiled as he finally began to give the young girl the once over. "Quite alright my dear. I fully understand you enthusiasm. The whole house is in a great and joyous up roar over having Logan and Elizabeth home. In fact Jubilation and."   
  
"Jubes is here!" Alexandria said with a wide smile.   
  
Hank chucked. "Indeed she is. She and Emma helped us to find you."   
  
Alexandria couldn't hide the surprised looked on her face as she looked over at Jean, who was leaning against Ororo, who had her arms wrapped around Jean's waist. "Ms. Frost is here?"   
  
Jean nodded and gave Alexandria a warm smile that let her know she was ok with Emma being there. "She helped us get you back, sweetie, that alone makes up for a lot."   
  
Ororo hugged Jean closer to her as she explained to Alexandria how Emma and Jubilee had come to the mansion with news and how Emma and Jean had used themselves as decoys for the gatekeeper and his brother.   
  
Alexandria looked stunned. "You risked yourself getting caught by those monsters for me?" She asked as she looked into Jean's deep green eyes.   
  
"Of course I did sweetie." Jean said as she walked over to Alexandria. She cupped the side of the girl's face and kissed her forehead and then smiled down at her. "I'd risk everything for my children and you know that includes you."   
  
Alexandria reached up and hugged Jean's neck. "I love you too, Aunt Jeannie."   
  
Jean pulled away from Alexandria at the sound of a soft knock at the door. She walked back over and stood next to Ororo as the door opened. Logan stepped in and smiled at the sight of Alexandria, who's face seemed to be beaming.   
  
Alexandria would have bounced right out of bed at the sight of her father if it hadn't been for Hank. "Your still connected to the IV, Lexie. Not a good idea to be leaping around right now."   
  
Alexandria gave her Uncle a sheepish grin. "Sorry Uncle Hank."   
  
Ororo looked over at Logan and smiled warmly at him as he made his way toward their daughter's bed. "Alexandria, why don't Jean and I give you a moment with your," Ororo paused for a moment. The words sounded so strange but felt good to say. "father. We're going to go up and check on the other children. Your sisters and brothers have been waiting to come and see you."   
  
Ororo, Jean and Hank left, leaving Logan and Alexandria alone. Alexandria found herself unable to stop staring at her father. There was something bugging him and she knew what it was. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about them. I just didn't know how."   
  
Logan nodded. "It's ok kid. Not something I would have been able to explain either."   
  
"What happens now, daddy?" Alexandria asked. Her eyes never leaving her father's. "Your not going to take off are you?"   
  
Logan sat on the bed next to her and gathered the girl in his arms. "I can't answer about what happens now, Lex, but I know I ain't going no where little darlin'. I promise you that."   
  
Alexandria snuggled into her father's hug and laid her head on his chest. She could hear the sound of his heart, feel his warmth, smell his scent. She felt safe and loved. This was better then any dream she had ever had of him. It was better because this was real. She really had her daddy back. But what did that mean for the only family she'd ever known? Alexandria might have only been a child but she saw the handwriting on the wall. Things were going to change. She only hopped it would all turn out ok in the end. 


	3. Opening the door

The black and white photograph showed the very tops of a large line of trees, a few wispy clouds, a bright sunny day from the look of the lighting, and a figure flying above the trees in the distance. Logan reached out and caressed the lone figure with a rough finger tip through the smooth glass of the frame. He couldn't make out her features but the flowing cape of long hair told him that it was her. Logan's hand fell quickly to his side just before a voice came from behind him.   
  
"It's an amazing photograph isn't it." She asked in a soft classical voice that sent chills up and down his spin.   
  
He could hear her coming towards him with out having to look at her. "It's beautiful, 'Ro. Musta gotten a real good photographer to take it."  
  
Ororo stood next to Logan and looked at the photograph that sat on the mantel about the fireplace in the library.   
  
"Alexandria took it." She told him as she straitened the photograph unnecessarily. Then Ororo pointed out a couple more black and white framed photographs. One was of Rouge and Remy sitting near the lake as the sun was setting, one was of the Professor sitting in front of the large window in his office looking out at something, one was of a group of kids that Logan barely recognize since the last time he had seen them they had all be ankle bitters, and the last was one of Ororo and Jean sitting on the old wooden swing in the back yard.   
  
"She took all of these."   
  
Logan looked over the photographs with a warm smile. Alexandria had a gift. "She's good."   
  
Ororo nodded her head as she smiled in a way that only a proud mother could. "She loves photography and is hardly ever without a camera." Ororo paused for a moment and when she spoke again her voice had taken on a different tone. "She wants to be a photojournalist like my father was."  
  
"David would be proud." Logan said softly as they continued to look over the photographs. He know how much she still missed her parents and how much she had longed for them to know her own children.  
  
Ororo nodded her head again. "Indeed he would be."   
  
Neither said another word for a long time. Ororo moved away from the mantel and over to one of the tall windows. She looked out over the grounds and watched as a few leaves fell off a near by tree. Logan walked over and sat on the arm of one of the leather chairs and watched Ororo. There was so much to be said but either one knew how to start. After a few more moments of silence it was Logan who broke the stillness.   
  
"So, you and Jeannie huh?"   
  
"Yes, Logan, and this conversation would go much smoother if you would get on past that small fact." Ororo said as she turned away from the window. She had seen how he had looked at them. She'd seen that look all to often from the people who could never have seen a relationship between she and Jean happening.   
  
"Never took you to be a lesbian, 'Ro." Logan said as he watched the graceful way Ororo folded her arms across her stomach. She hadn't changed at all over the years. She was just as beautiful and just as break taking as she was on the night he figured out he was in love with her.   
  
Ororo leaned against the window frame. She looked into Logan's pale blue eyes and then she traced the few weathered lines on his face with her eyes as she spoke. "I wasn't one until I was one, Logan." Ororo had never liked labels. She was just who she was. A woman who'd been with, cared for, and loved people. A woman who had only truly loved two people her whole life in such a total and complete way. One man and one woman. Wasn't that what mattered? The way she felt about the person and not what the person happened to be?   
  
Logan just nodded his head. He had known that at one time Ororo and Yukio had been lovers, but his mind couldn't wrap it's self around her and Jean. "I don't understand Ororo. I thought you and Jean were always like sisters."   
  
"We were, but things changed." Ororo walked over and sat in the leather chair across from Logan. She leaned forward, resting her forearms on the tops of her thighs as she looked down at her french tip manicured finger nails. "It just happened. Neither one of us were looking for anything remotely like this. After your," Ororo paused and lifted only her eyes to look at him. "death, things around here changed."   
  
Logan slide off the arm of the chair and into the chair it's self as he nodded. "Got some of the details from, Lex." Logan emphasized the word, some, and then gave Ororo a half grin. "She told me about Cyke and Jeannie getting a divorce. And about Jeannie and you having remarried. She left out the part about it being to each other though."   
  
Ororo nodded as if she understood why her daughter had left that part out. "Jean helped me a great deal with my grief. I'd fallen into a depression of sorts and she pulled me out of it. Then when she found out about Scott and Emma I returned the favor. Things didn't start to really change between us until about five years ago. We started to spend more time alone together, not as parents, or teammates, but just as us."   
  
Logan watched as Ororo began to twist one of the bands she wore on her left hand, and he could feel his chest tighten when he noticed she still wore his ring as well.   
  
"It all happened in a moment that neither one of us saw coming. We'd gone to the city for a weekend of Broadway. It was a combine mother's day gift from the children. Everything between Jean and I changed that night. We were alone, just the two of us in the hotel. We talked most of the night about our lives and about how we felt about the children, about our lives, about each other. We're still not sure who kissed who first." A small but amazingly bright smile crossed Ororo's face. "We've been together ever since. We married three years ago right out there in my garden."   
  
Logan followed Ororo's gaze out the window to the rose garden and nodded. There was silence between them now. Logan understood better how Ororo felt about Jean, but that didn't change how he felt about her. He still loved her.   
  
It was almost like Ororo was reading his mind. "I still love you, Logan. I never stopped loving you. When I swore to you on the day we were married that you were and would be the only man I ever loved, I truly meant it."  
  
He got up and walked over to her and then Logan knelt down in front of her. He took her soft mocha hands into his large gruff paws and held them tight. "I love you to, 'Ro, and I'll wait as long as I have to for you to sort all this out. I only want you to be happy."   
  
With that Logan raised up and kissed Ororo softly on the lips before leaving her to sit alone, looking out the tall window on the other side of the room.   
  
Logan Jr. watched as the man he'd seen his Uncle Remy with leave the library and then he stepped inside. He heard soft sniffles and walked over to one of the large leather chairs and carefully craned his neck to see who was sitting in it. His eyes widened when he saw his mother sitting there crying. Logan Jr. looked at the door he's just walked though and the man had just walked out of and scowled. Who the hell was this guy and who the hell did he think he was making his mother cry?   
  
Just as silently as he had come into the room, Logan Jr. made his way out again. He turned down the hall and started to walk the way he'd see the man go. He was going to make sure this clown knew that it was totally not cool to make her mother upset. He followed him all the way out to the lake using every last skill his Uncle Remy had taught him. He waited until he saw the man stop and pull on of those foul smelling cigars from his pocket and then he pounced.   
  
Logan put the cigar into his mouth and turned just in time to catch his tiny stalker. He held the boy out at arms length as the kid kicked and squirmed and tried in vain to punch him. Once the kid chilled out a little Logan put him on the ground.   
  
"Done yet, kid?"   
  
Logan Jr. looked at the man with an angry scowl on his face. He lunged forward swinging but Logan put his hand on the kid's head and kept him out of reach as the boy kept swinging.   
  
"You made my Momma cry!" Logan Jr. shouted. "You'll pay for that mister!"   
  
Logan stood there holding the kid back as he kept swinging and pushing against his hand. He gave the boy a half grin and tried not to laugh since he knew the boy was very serious. "Didn't mean too, kid."   
  
Ororo sat there a little longer looking out the window thinking about what was and wasn't said between her and Logan. She was completely lost in her thoughts and didn't hear Kitty come into the room until she felt a hand on her shoulder.   
  
"'Ro, are you ok?"   
  
Ororo wiped the tears off her cheek with her shoulder and nodded. "Of course, Kitten. I'm fine, dear."   
  
Kitty just nodded and moved in front of Ororo and titled her head to the side as she looked down at her. "Sure you are."   
  
"I am dear, really. I just have a lot on my mind." Ororo stood from the chair and smiled warmly at the younger woman. She could tell that Kitty wasn't buying it so she decided to change the subject. "Tell me child, have you gone down to med lab yet and seen Alexandria?"   
  
Kitty just sighed as she nodded. "Yeah, she tried to talk me and Jubes into sneaking her in some McDonald's. Kept saying they didn't have any in the other reality and that she wanted a big mac really bad." Kitty grinned.   
  
Ororo laughed lightly. "Well it is nearly lunch time. Perhaps one of Rogue's perfectly grilled hamburgers will make up for the lack of McDonald's in her recent diet"   
  
The two woman walked quietly down the hall towards the kitchen and then looked at each other oddly at the sight they found. Rogue and Bobby both stood by the kitchen window watching something. Bobby was laughing hysterically and Rogue kept elbowing him.   
  
"What's so funny?" Kitty asked as she walked over and joined them. As soon as she saw what they were looking at her hand went over her mouth.   
  
Rogue turned and looked at Ororo with a look only another mother could make. "Have you told Logan about his dad being back?"   
  
Ororo's eyes widened. "I was planning on talking to him before dinner. Why?"   
  
"You'd better come look, 'Ro." Kitty said.   
  
Ororo walked over to the window and sighed.   
  
"You done yet, kid?" Logan asked.   
  
"NO!"   
  
Logan figured he'd let the kid wear himself out and then explain that he hadn't meant to make Ororo cry. He couldn't help but be proud of the boy for watching out for his mother, and was more then a little surprised at the kid's stamina and spunk. Most kids would have given up by now and stomped off. This one wasn't stopping until he either ran out of steam or got a piece of him.   
  
The wind around the two started to swirl around them and before either of them could look up they heard a soft thud of something, or rather someone landing on the grass next to them.   
  
"Logan Munroe stop that this instant."   
  
Logan Jr. stopped swinging against the man and turned to see his mother standing there with her arms crossed. "I saw.. I saw him leave and I went in and you were crying! He made you cry!" Logan Jr. spun as fast as he could and nailed Logan right in the gut as hard as he could and then he looked up at the man and growled. "No one makes my momma cry!"   
  
"Logan Henry Munroe!" Ororo scolded.   
  
"It's alright, 'Ro. He's only protecting his mother."   
  
Ororo shook her head and sighed. Then she walked over to her son and knelt down to his height. She took his small balled up hands into her own and looked him in the eyes. "Logan, I have something I need to explain to you." Logan Jr. looked down at his mother and nodded. "Your sister wasn't the only person we brought back with us. You see, your sister was taken to this place and while she was there she found someone."   
  
"Him." Logan Jr. said as he looked back at his father.   
  
Ororo nodded as she turned her son's face to look at her once again. "Logan, this man, you wouldn't remember him very well, but he's someone important to you." Ororo looked up at Logan and then back down at her son. "Logan, this is your father." 


	4. A walk and a fly

Two small blue eyes looked up at the adults standing in front of them, blinking. His mother had always told Logan Jr. that his father was dead and now she was telling him that he was alive. Logan Jr. had always known that his family was odd and that weird and unnatural things happened to them, but for someone to come back from the dead?   
  
"Logan?"   
  
He heard his mother say his name and Logan Jr. turned away from the short burly man and looked up at her.   
  
"Sweetie, did you hear what I just told you?"   
  
Logan Jr. nodded. "Yes ma'am."   
  
Ororo looked over at Logan and then back down at their son. The blank look on his face worried her. She reached out and brushed some of his unruly black hair from his forehead as she spoke. "Logan, are you alright child?" Again Logan Jr. just nodded and Ororo sighed. "Do you have something you'd like to say or ask about this? I know this must be awfully strange."   
  
Logan Jr. thought about it for a while and then looked up at the adults again. He wasn't sure what they wanted him to feel or think. He wasn't even sure what he wanted to feel or think. Finally he looked up at his mother only. The blank expression still on his face.   
  
"I need to find Uncle Remy before lunch to tell him that Aunt Marie said to get his Cajun self ready on time to go with her to her mothers' after lunch"   
  
Ororo sighed again, "I'm sure that can wait Logan. Don't you think..."   
  
Her words were cut short when Logan reached over and put his hand on her arm. He could see that the kid was trying to process the news and needed some time. Logan looked at Ororo and then down at Logan Jr's face. Ororo looked down at their son as well and finally saw in his eyes that he was more then a little confused. She knew that Logan Jr. was close to Remy so she figured he wanted to talk to him about this.   
  
"Alright child. Go find your uncle."   
  
The two adults watched as the small ten year old boy ran off towards the house. Then Ororo started walking towards the woods next to the lake and Logan followed. They were quiet for a while, both lost in their own thoughts. Thoughts about their children, about themselves, about their family. It was Logan who finally broke the stillness.   
  
"The kid's not use to the idea of someone returning from the dead."   
  
Ororo nodded and in a very serious tone replied. "Yes, well Jean hasn't died and come back in over twenty years so the normally of that has warn off."   
  
Logan smirked and then the two went right back to walking in silence though the woods. A lot of spoken words were never really needed between the two. Ororo and Logan could say volumes to each other with out a single word being spoken.   
  
The setting they were in didn't escape them as they walked. They both realized where they were, that they were once again walking side by side in the woods, their woods. The wooded area south of the mansion, and next to the lake, had always been a special place for them. It was where Logan had first told Ororo he loved her, where they had made love for the first time, where Logan had asked Ororo to marry him, and in the small circular clearing they were quickly approaching, where the two were married and had their children's blessing ceremonies.   
  
"I never thought I'd see this again." Logan said softly as they walked into the clearing.   
  
Ororo watched him as he walked to the very center and stood in just the place he had on the night they said their vows. He looked almost as he had that night, only now his handsome face was a little more weathered. She watched as Logan looked up at the sky that could be seen though the gape in the tree tops and as she did the memories of that night came back to her.   
  
Chairs for their family and friends had been set all around in a circle four rows deep. The middle of the clearing boasted only a simple alter, the high priestess from Ororo's ancestral village, and the two of them. They were married on a late summer evening when the moon was full and high in the sky. It was so full and bright, that the whole clearing, but mostly the couple exchanging vows, was bathed in a radiant sliver light.   
  
Ororo was brought back to the present by a soft warm bush of skin against her cheek. Logan was standing in front of her wiping the tear that had rolled down her cheek away. "You where so stunningly beautiful that night, 'Ro. I've always loved the way you look in moon light."   
  
"You were so handsome that night. All dressed up in your formal clothes, with your hair cut short and your face clean cut." She replied. The air around them began to swirl and the fall leaves began to dance hazily around their feet. Ororo looked down into Logan's eyes and then bushed some of his unruly hair from his brow. Neither said a word for a long time, but finally they each looked away and began to walk again.   
  
Back at the mansion lunch was in full swing. Everyone was out on the kitchen deck fighting over bottles of ketchup and sacks of chips. Kitty was putting Rogue and Remy's daughter Raven, into her high chair, while avoiding Jubilee and Bobby who were having a sword fight with foot long hot dogs. The professor and Hank were sitting on the other side of the deck talking to Emma about the Mass. academy's rush outbreak of mumps among the teens there. Elizabeth was talking happily about the latest fashions with Rachel, while also watching Nate and Sam playing catch with a football. She found herself unable to stop smiling. She loved being home even if it did hurt to be there with out Warren.   
  
Jean just stood near the edge of the deck watching the lake. She'd seen Ororo and Logan slip into the woods and couldn't bring herself to look away. For some reason she wanted to see the look on Ororo's face when they came back out.   
  
"You gonna eat, sug?" She heard Rogue ask from behind her. Jean just shook her head. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and she smiled a little. "I'm alright, Marie."   
  
Rogue squeezed her friend's shoulder and then bumped hips with her playfully. "Of course you will be sugar. The Phoenix always raises above it all."   
  
Jean turned to look at her friend and gave her a warm smile before hugging her briefly. Rouge was right. She would raise above what ever was about to be thrown her way. She only hoped that her wind rider would be at her side when she did.   
  
"Oh well now I see how it is." Came a voice from the kitchen door. Everyone whipped around to see Alexandria standing there with a mock hurt expression on her face. "You all leave me in that sterile little box of a medical room all alone and come out here on a day like this and have a party with out me.. Well I guess we know where I stand around here."   
  
Rachel's smile widen at the sight of her sister and she quickly bonded over to her and engulfed the slightly taller girl in her arms. Nate and Kitty were right behind her. Nate smiled as he picked Alexandria up and spun her around with a laugh.   
  
"Ah, your all better, Lexie.. Your as dramatic as ever you drama queen."   
  
Everyone laughed including Jean who was walking towards her children with a bright smile in her bright green eyes as well as on her lips. "Alight Nate, put the girl down. She's still not back to one hundred percent yet."   
  
Alexandria smiled down at her older brother as he held her up in the air by her waist. "Yeah you big oaf put me down!" She smacked him on the shoulder as she wink at him. Nate winked back and instead of sitting her down on the ground he gave her a little toss upwards. Just as his hands released her Alexandria could feel a mass of air surround her body and in the blink of an eye the girl was in the air.   
  
The warm air felt heavenly as it caressed Alexandria's skin. She closed her eyes and went higher as she filled her lungs with the sweet autumn scents of up state New York in the fall.   
  
"Alexandria!" She heard Jean calling from the ground. "Alexan.. Rachel where do you think your going?" Alexandria opened her eyes to see her sister joining her in the air and started to giggle. "Alexandria, didn't Hank tell you no flying? And Rachel your not helping. Sam... Rouge! Now come on your suppose to be an adult! Well you lot come down please."   
  
Jean stood there, hands on hips, trying to get the air born group down when her son walked over chuckling.. "Mom.."  
  
"Yes Nathan."  
  
Nate chucked again. "You know you can fly too. Why not go up and get them?"   
  
Jean shot her son a warning look and then cracked a smile. She kissed his forehead and then took off into the air to join the others.   
  
Two sets of legs stuck out from under the sliver convertible in the mansion's driveway. The left foot of each set wiggled as the two people under the car completed the old changing that the larger of the two males had started before his young nephew had shown up. Remy and Logan Jr. slid out from under Ororo's car at the same time, sat up together, and whipped the oil from there hands in the same way, on their jeans. Remy looked down at his little helper and smiled.   
  
"T'anks for de help, petite." Remy said as he got up from the ground with a grunt.   
  
Logan Jr. nodded with a smile. "I got your back Uncle Remy. I know Aunt Marie would be mightily mad if you were still tuning up all the cars when it was time to go see her parents."   
  
Remy flinched. He had planned this little afternoon of playing auto mechanic to get out of having dinner with his mothers-in-law. Not that he minded Irene, although she did give him the creeps from time to time, but it was the idea of listening to Raven go on and on about this and that. It was quite clear from which of her mothers his darling wife got her mouth.   
  
"So," Remy said as he passed Logan Jr. a soda from the garage's fridge. "Ot'er then wanting to help out y'ur ol' uncle Remy, why you hiding in here with me petite?"   
  
Logan. Jr. just shrugged his shoulders as he opened the can with a hiss. He took a long, fast drink that made his eyes water and then he sighed. Remy had to hide his smile. Logan Jr. sounded just like his Stormy when he sighed.   
  
"Momma told me that the man I saw with you before is my father." Logan finally said.   
  
Remy nodded. "Dat's de tru'h mon ami. That be de Wolverine himself, which makes him your papa." Remy watched as a hundred and one questions crossed the little boy's face and tried his best to answer the ones he was brave enough to ask. and some he wasn't. He told him all about how they thought he was dead but wasn't, and how Alexandria had found him and Elizabeth, and how they all came back.   
  
Logan Jr. listened and then after a long pause said, "Why couldn't Lex have just left him there. I don't need a dad.. I have two moms, and I have a brother and sisters and cousins and aunts and uncles." Logan Jr. sighed again and then threw his arms around Remy. "And I have you.. I don't need him, I have you!"   
  
Remy looked down at the boy, he didn't know what to say or do so he did the only thing he could. He hugged the boy back and held back the tear in his eye.   
  
Logan and Ororo stepped out of the woods and headed towards the house. Nothing more had been said between them but they both knew that there was still love between them. It was different, yet ageless, and it was real and safe. As they got closer to the house they both cracked a smile.   
  
"Looks like they started the party with out us." Logan chuckled.   
  
Ororo laughed in return and then shook her head. "Barely out of the med lab and that child is already in the air."   
  
"Well she is her mother's daughter." Logan said as he watched Ororo take off into the air. He smiled to himself as he watched her grab their daughter from behind and spin her around. He even continued to smile as he watched them play with Rachel and Jean. He nodded to the others as he walked up onto the deck and barely said a word to anyone as he made himself a plate. Then he leaned against the wall and watched the group of flyers as he gnawed on a hamburger.   
  
Then his attention was drawn to Remy and Logan Jr. The way that Logan Jr. was clinging to Remy answered a lot of his questions. 'Well it looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me to find my place around here again. Maybe it would be easier if I...' Logan stopped his thought when he saw the way Elizabeth was looking at him. He flashed her a smile and nodded. He had promised her and his daughter he wouldn't take off.. As hard as it was going to be, he had to stay. For them as well as himself. 


	5. Places

It was early in the morning, early enough that it was still dark outside. The mansion was eerily quite and still with everyone in their beds sound asleep. Well, almost everyone. Alexandria dressed in the darkness of her room and then literally floated down the hall, out the door, and down the attic stairs to the third floor hallway. She looked up the steps to make sure all was still quiet and that no one had heard her leave, and then Alexandria closed the bottom door and made her way down the hall towards the north wing of bedrooms.   
  
Alexandria knocked softly on the last door on the right side of the fall hall and then she looked around to make sure no one was around. When there was no answer she knocked a little harder and then after still no reply she cracked open the door and popped her head in. The room was empty. She felt a sudden lump form in her stomach and then started back down the hall. She was just about to head back to the attic when she remembered something Remy had told her. 'Maybe he's walking around the grounds.' She thought to herself as she started down the main stair case.   
  
She looked in the kitchen and out into the yard from the deck and then down in the danger room before Alexandria finally made it to the front hall. She was heading towards the front door when she heard the clink of pool balls knocking into each other. She smiled to herself as she headed towards the rec room. 'It has to be him,' she thought, 'who else would be playing pool at three in the morning.' Sure enough when she walked into the rec room there stood her father at the pool table.   
  
"What'cha doing up, darlin'?" Logan asked as the cue ball sent the nine ball rolling into the left corner pocket.   
  
Alexandria walked over to him and smiled. "Got something to show ya." She said as she took her father's hand. It was warm and rough and seemed to totally engulf her tiny little hand. She smiled again, that's how it use to feel when she was a little girl too.   
  
Logan didn't say a word, he just let his daughter lead him though the house and out into the garage. They walked passed the rows of personal cars, then past the school's van, then past a row of motorcycles. Alexandria heard her father sigh gruffly as they passed Remy's old bike and it made she smile. She let go of his hand and turned to him, her smile gone, but there was a tinkle in her eye that Logan remembered all to well which made him smirk.   
  
"Stay here." She told him before heading off to the far end of the garage.   
  
Logan nodded and then walked over to Remy's bike. He ran his hands over the leather and remembered how he and the Cajun would spend hours on end in here working on their bikes, and from the look of the old girl, Remy still did. Logan moved over to one of the new bikes and was checking it out when he heard a small grunt coming from the back. When he looked up the site nearly knocked him on his rear.   
  
Alexandria slowly walked her father's old scoot out from the back were she and Remy kept it. It was heavy and it was all she could do to push it, but she was use to handling it. She'd come out and practice tipping it and getting it back up when no one was paying attention to what she was doing. The look on her father's face when he saw her with his scoot was priceless.   
  
"She still runs like a dream. Uncle Remy and I have made sure of it. He's been teaching me how to work on her and keep her tuned and everything. He even promised to teach me how to ride her when I turned sixteen, but since she's yours and your back now."   
  
Logan walked over to his daughter and the bike. He ran his hands over the bikes leather and chrome, he checked out her engine and everything Remy and Alexandria had done. She looked just as she had the last time he'd ridden her. Then he got on and started her up. The growling purr he heard made the grumpy feral little man smile as big and as brightly as a child on Christmas morning.   
  
Watching her father reacquainting himself with his motorcycle made Alexandria happier then she had felt in a long time. She drunk in every moment as if she'd be dying of thrust. She'd missed out on so much time with her father and she wanted to savor everything. She nearly squealed in delight when Logan handed her a helmet.   
  
"Is the IHOP in town still open?"   
  
Alexandria jumped up and down with a smile on her face that lit up the whole place. Logan laughed deeply as he watched his daughter grab a leather jacket from a hook behind the bikes and then revved the engine as she put the jacket and helmet on. Alexandria climbed onto the back of the bike and wrapped her arms around her father tightly as she brought her feet up to rest on the pegs.   
  
The restored old Harley ripped out of the Xavier mansion's garage, down the long drive way, out the fount gates, and then disappeared down the dirt road with it's two riders happily and silently enjoying the moment.   
  
Ororo and Jean sat at the kitchen table drinking their coffee enjoying the alone time together before the madness of breakfast, or any meal for that matter, in the mansion started. Ororo sat with her legs in Jean's lap and smiled as Jean ran a hand up and down one of them. Moments like these had become rare since Logan's return. Something always seemed to get in the way of them. Questions, worries, concerns, the fact that legally Ororo's marriage to Logan was still valid since he wasn't dead after all, even Logan himself just seemed to have the timing down for interrupting them.   
  
Then there was the fact that Logan Jr. was not dealing well with his father's return at all. He avoided Logan all together most of the time and fought relentlessly with his sister over her growing bond with Logan. Logan Jr. blamed Alexandria for breaking their family and he demanded in a temper that would revile that of all X-Men that she fix it. Alexandria tried her best to keep clam with her little brother and to explain to him that it's going to take a while but things will work out and their family will better for it, not broken. But Ororo could see the worry in both her children's eyes, and it hurt her to see Alexandria being torn inside. She loved the why her family was, she loved having her mother and Jean together, but she loved having her father back.   
  
*What's on your mind, 'Ro?* Jean asked Ororo telepathically.   
  
Ororo looked up at her lover and smiled weakly at her. She was about to reply when the kitchen door burst open.   
  
"Good morning mon amis." Remy said sleepily as he shuffled across the kitchen floor towards the coffee pot.   
  
"Good morning, brother." Ororo replied as she took Jean's hand and squeezed it. "I did not hear you return, when did you get back?"   
  
Remy looked over at the Egyptian goddess he called sister and then cocked his head to the side. "Remy not go any where to come back from, mon ami."   
  
Jean looked at him with a slightly confused look as she played with Ororo's long white hair. "Sure you did, Remy, this morning on your bike. We heard you leave sometime before dawn."   
  
"T'was not Remy you heard, Jeannie." Remy said as he took a seat across from the two women. "You ask Rogue, Remy not leave de bed all night."   
  
"Could have been Sam then I guess." Ororo said with a shrug as she sipped her coffee.   
  
"I didn't do it!" Sam called from the doorway. "It was Bobby's idea I.."   
  
Sam was cut off as Bobby bopped him in the head. "Shut up you southern goof ball."  
  
As the rest of the family filed into the kitchen for breakfast it slowly dawned on Ororo who had left that early in the morning on a motorcycle and wondered when exactly Remy had told Logan his bike was still here. Her mind started to drift off into the memories of riding behind Logan on the back of his scoot and a slow smile spread across her face. For as much as she use to complain about that bike, she truly did love the feeling it gave her to be on it with her arms around him.   
  
Ororo was brought out of her memories by a pair of arms wrapping around neck. "Good morning, Aunt 'Ro." Rachel said before giving Ororo a quick kiss on the check and stealing a piece of her bacon.   
  
"Good morning, Child." Ororo replied with a smile. She looked around and saw Rachel, Logan. Jr., Kitty, and Jubilee, but no Alexandria. "And where would your sister be this morning?" She asked as Rachel leaned in to steal a bit of her toast.   
  
Rachel shrugged. "Mmumm," She mumbled with her mouth full. "She wasn't in her bed when I woke up and her PJs were thrown all over the floor again."   
  
Ororo felt a flash of panic before the calmness of her control took over again. It only took her a few seconds to piece together that her daughter was with Logan and she relaxed a little bit more. She trusted Logan with their children but she would still have to have a talk with her teenage daughter about sneaking out at dawn with out telling anyone where she's going.   
  
It was after one o'clock before Logan's Harley came roaring up the drive way. Jean was just getting into her car when the bike pulled up next to her. She got back out and walked over to the other side of the car and leaned against it with her arms crossed.   
  
Alexandria got off the bike and took her helmet off. She shook out her long white and hair and then wrapped her father in a huge hug. "That was great, Daddy! Can we do it again!"   
  
Logan hugged his daughter back and smiled. "Every weekend just like we use to."   
  
Jean smiled quickly before turning serious again and clearing her throat to let them know she was there.   
  
"Aunt Jeannie!" Alexandria squealed not noticing the look on her other mother's face. "It was so cool! We went all the way to.." Alexandria stopped when she finally noticed Jean's look. "What?"   
  
"Do you know that you've had your mother worried?" Jean asked in her 'I'm not very happy with you' mother voice.  
  
Alexandria blushed a little. "I was with Daddy. It's ok."   
  
"No, Alexandria, it isn't ok. It's never ok to just take off with out telling someone where your going, even if it's with Logan."   
  
Alexandria titled her head and looked a little confused. "But we just went out for awhile and it was kinda spear of the moment and if you had really wanted to know where I was your would have reached out telepathically and asked me and I would have told you so there's really no reason to get all huffy." She said in one long breathless sentence.   
  
"Your not a little girl anymore, Alexandria. Your old enough to know that it's the responsible thing to inform your parents where you are going. You snuck out of the attic at three in the morning and then took of with out a word and you've been gone nearly ten hours without a single call, or telepathic word. You don't see this as something that could possibly worry your mother and I?"  
  
Alexandria hadn't even thought of it as being like sneaking out but she guessed it was kinda. She was about to apologize when she head her father step up behind her.   
  
"Back off the kid, Jeannie. She was with me. You know she was safe."   
  
"That's not the point, Logan. The point is she should have told someone or left a note or told me telepathically." Jean then turned to Alexandria her face still looking like a disapproving parent. "You mother wants to have a word with you but she had to take your brother into town, so I think it would be best if you waited for her in your room."   
  
Again Alexandria was about to reply as she nodded her head, but Logan again stepped in.   
  
"Who gave you the right to be sending my kid to her room for spending the mornin' with her old man?" There was a lot of emotion in that statement that had nothing to do with Jean sending Alexandria to her room and a whole lot about Jean taking Logan's place in his family.   
  
But before Jean could answer his statement a voice from the driveway replied for her. "I did." Ororo said as she began to walk towards them, Logan Jr. on her heels. Logan, Jean, and Ororo shared a look, as did Alexandria and Logan Jr.   
  
"Alexandria I do believe that Jean asked you to go to the attic, would you be so kind as to take your brother with you."   
  
"Yes ma'am." Alexandria said as she nodded her head towards the door. "Come on twerp."  
  
"Don't call me that, dork face" Logan Jr. replied.   
  
Once the adults where alone Ororo looked at Logan, his bike and then back at him. "I understand your wanting to spend time with the children. Logan. I want you to. I have no problem with you taking Alexandria out on your bike, I do have a problem with not knowing where she is."   
  
"We use to.." Logan started but Ororo cut him off.  
  
"Every Saturday morning. Yes I know. I knew she was with you and that you two went to breakfast every week." Logan gave her a how'd you know look and Ororo chuckled. "She was a small child, Logan. I kind of guessed when she'd come home coved in maple syrupy."   
  
Ororo paused as she walked closed to Jean but she still looked at Logan. "And as far as Jean is concerned. She's helped me raise the children for the past ten years, Logan. She was a parent to them long before she became my lover. Yes your their father and I want you in their lives as such, but Jean's as much their mother as I am and your being back doesn't change her role in their lives."   
  
There was a long pause where no one said a word. Finally Logan just nodded and then walked away. Ororo and Jean watched him until they couldn't see him any more. Then Jean turned to Ororo.   
  
"He didn't like that."   
  
"He doesn't like a lot of things right now but these are my choices. He promised he'd give me time and deal with what I chose. If he can't that's his problem."   
  
Jean could tell how much that statement hurt Ororo. She didn't say a word, she just put her arm around Ororo's back and leaned into her. Ororo wrapped her arms around Jean in return and neither said a word. 


	6. Everyone in Twos

****Author's Note: I am so sorry for not updating sooner. I have not given up on this story or the prequels that I have planned. It's just that school has taken up a lot of time and I haven't even had time to read the comics I by every week let alone write, but I promise to do better now that school is winding down and to make up for it this is the first of two new chapters for this story.. So enjoy.***  
  
***Disclaimer: Do you think I'd be busting my butt in a creative writing class if I owned the X-Men? Ok, so I would be, but I still don't own them. Alexandria and Logan Jr. and other OCs are mine thought.***  
  
She watched him as he worked out in the danger room from the observation/control booth. It had surprised her that he would have created a program that made the terrain and opponents the same as they were in the other reality where they had spent the last ten years of their lives. She would have thought he'd want to put all of that behind him now that they were back. But maybe the memory of what was left behind was better then what he had come home to, after all it was hard on him seeing his wife with some else. It was hard to have his son hate him, and his daughter worried about where things were finally going to fall. She had watched him when Alexandria had joined them, he had such high hopes. He was so disappointed that things weren't as he had dreamed.   
  
The program came to an end and Elizabeth stood looking at the shirtless sweating man in the room below her. She pressed the intercom and smiled down at him. "Nice moves, mate, how about I buy you a pint and you can tell me how you did that flip."   
  
Logan looked up and saw Elizabeth standing in the booth and chuckled. "Sure Darlin' but if you want details it'll take more then just a pint." He picked up his towel and headed out of the danger room knowing full well that Elizabeth didn't wanna know jack about his fighting moves. She'd over heard the fight he and Ororo had had that morning and wanted to know what was up. "Give me ten to shower and change and I'll meet you by the front door."   
  
Ten minutes later Elizabeth was waiting in front of the house. She blinked when she heard the sound of a motorcycle coming from the garage. "What is that?" She asked when Logan pulled up in front of her.   
  
"It's a bike, Darlin'" He said with a smirk.   
  
Elizabeth blinked. "You expect me to ride on that thing with you?"   
  
Logan nodded. "I did promise you when we first got sucked into that other place that if we ever got back I'd take you for a ride. So get on, you promised me a beer."   
  
Elizabeth smiled and nodded. She took the extra helmet and put it on after taking her long purple/black hair out of it's pony tail since it wouldn't go on over her hair clip. She wrapped her arms around Logan tightly and then Logan asked if she was ready. Before she could say yes she felt the bike jerk as it took off down the drive way.   
  
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*  
  
"What's so inserting outside, love?" Jean asked as she walked up behind Ororo.   
  
Ororo watched as Logan's bike took off down the road and sighed. "Nothing." She said and then turned around. She still felt bad for blowing up at Logan that morning over letting Alexandria drive his motorcycle and went to talk to him only to catch site of him helping Elizabeth onto his bike.   
  
"You know you had a right to be mad this morning. You've told Logan and Remy both not to teach her how to ride those things. She can't even drive a car yet." Jean said comfortingly as she took hold of Ororo's hand and lead her to the couch.   
  
Jean sat on the end of the couch and put a pillow in her lap for Ororo to lie her head on. She was worried about the lack of sleep Ororo was getting and wanted to see if she could get her lover to take a nap.  
  
Ororo smiled and sat on the couch and lied her head in Jean's lap and smiled. "I do enjoy spending time with you like this my love, but I am not going to take a nap."   
  
"Now who said anything about napping?" Jean said with an innocent smile. "I just thought that since the children all went with Jubilee to spend the day with her before she and Emma went back to the Mass. Academy, and since we appear to have the house to ourselves for a while it would be nice to just relax for a bit."   
  
"Umhmm." Ororo said as she reached up to run her fingers though Jean's hair. She lied there for a long time and just looked up at Jean. Then she sighed. "Things have really been a mess lately. I sorry for putting you though this my love."   
  
Jean smiled down at Ororo. "It's not your fault, Ro. I understand, really, I do." She said as she softly traced the outline of Ororo's jaw.   
  
"You do know that I still love you don't you? And that I always will?" Ororo asked as she pressed Jean's hand to her cheek, taking in the smell of her perfume.   
  
"I do, and I love you too, Ororo." Jean smiled and then leaned down and kissed her lover full on the mouth.   
  
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*  
  
The mall wasn't as normally crowded as it should have been on a Saturday afternoon, but Alexandria didn't seem to mind, not that she really noticed. She tugged at a pair of black chinos three sizes to big and added them to the pile of clothes she was going to try on.   
  
"You planning on trying to out eat Hank in Twinkies or something, Lex?" Jubilee asked as she held up the pants.   
  
"Huh?" Alexandria asked she turned to look at the older girl. "Oh, no, I wasn't.. Sorry."   
  
Jubilee put the pants back on the rack and got an indicial pair in Alexandria's size. "What's on your mind, squirt?" Alexandria just shrugged. She didn't even protest against being called squirt, which normally got the same reaction that calling her mother Stormy got. "Ok, kid, I get it, lets go" Jubilee said as she took hold of Alexandria's hand and lead her out of the American Eagle store.   
  
They walked over to the nearest coffee place in the mall, which at this end would be Star Bucks, Jubilee preferred Caribou but this was an emergency. She sat her 'little sister' down at a table and then went to the counter. A few minutes later she came back and placed a white mocha latte in front of Alexandria and then sat across from her with her own double mocha espresso.   
  
"Ok squirt, out with it."   
  
Alexandria sipped all the whipped cream from her drink and then looked up at her 'older sister.' "I wish you weren't going back already." She said softly.   
  
"I know, kid, and I'd love to stick around but me and Frosty gotta get back, we have students of our own ya know."   
  
"Yeah, I know, but everything's still all screwed up here."   
  
Jubilee sighed. She had hoped that her Stormy and her Wolive would have worked this all out by now. "It's not something that can be rushed, Lex."   
  
"I know." Alexandria said before taking a long sip of her drink.   
  
There was a long pause in the conversation as the two just sat there looking around. Jubilee loved that Alexandria and Rachel came to her like this, she felt it was a way to give back for all the times she'd gone to Ororo, but she couldn't help but wish that Pride had been around. She was always good at filling the long pauses. Finally, as she wiped at some over flowed whipped cream on the side of her cup as she asked.   
  
"If you had to choose someone for your mom to be with to end all this who would you pick?" Alexandria looked up at Jubilee with a look on her face that made Jubilee nearly laugh. "Well see, it's not as easy as we think it should be. Your mom will pick who she loves more I guess when she's ready."   
  
Alexandria shook her head. "I don't think it's a matter of who she loves more. She loves them differently."   
  
Jubilee nodded. "Yeah guess your right."   
  
"I think it's us."   
  
It was Jubilee's turn to make an odd face. "What do you mean?"   
  
"I think she's worried about me and Logie. I think," Alexandria sighed. "I think she hasn't admitted what she wants cause she's afraid of how it will effect us."  
  
Again Jubilee nodded. "Maybe you should talk to her about what you think."   
  
Alexandria just shrugged. "Maybe."   
  
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*  
  
The four horsemen tavern was crowed but neither Logan nor Elizabeth minded. They sat at a table in the back, away from the juke box, with two empty and one full pitchers of beer between them. After an hour or so they'd finally managed to run out of small talk and Elizabeth had asked Logan about the fight.   
  
"Remy promised her he'd teach her so she could ride my scoot herself on her sixteenth birthday, so since Remy and Rouge are out of town and I am her father." There was a flare of passion in Logan's eyes that sparked something in Elizabeth every time she saw it. "I knew what I was doin', I wasn't gong to let her get hurt."   
  
"I know that, and so does Ororo." Elizabeth said carefully.  
  
"So what was the big freakin' deal?"   
  
Elizabeth had to think about her answer. "Maybe it's cause you seem to be trying to hard?" She added a shrug to further make her statement seem more like a question.   
  
Logan growled.   
  
"I mean it's not the first time you've tried to prove your placement as the father by stepping over 'Ro's and Jean's place as the mothers. Right?"   
  
Logan growled and nodded.   
  
"I know it's hard Logan, you deserve better then this, but maybe you should try blending in and working with Jean instead of against her. All of you were so close before, you really need to draw from that right now. Well to a point anyway."  
  
Logan was quite for a while. He finished two more beers before he said a word. "I have to get my head straight."   
  
Elizabeth nodded. "And what's stopping you from doing that?"   
  
"I can't leave." Logan growled.   
  
"Ahh." Elizabeth nodded. Logan always took off when he needed to think. He could be gone for days, weeks, even months until he'd worked it all out in his head. "I need to go to the city to take care of some bossiness. I'll be gone for a week or so, your welcome to "tag along"."   
  
Logan looked up at her. Was she offering him a way to be alone for awhile without it looking like he'd spilt. "Thanks Darlin' but I promised I'd stick around."   
  
Elizabeth took a gulp from her glass and nodded as she reached out and covered Logan's hand with her own. "It's an open door offer, Logan."   
  
Logan smiled. "I'll keep that in mind, Darlin'" 


	7. A Call for Help

Author's Note: Here ya go, the second updated chapter I promised.  
  
Disclaimer: Read all the ones before this one.  
  
The class sat in perfect stillness as they all held their heads down, eyes focused, pens scratching out the answers to Hank's chemistry test. Alexandria hated chemistry. She would much rather be in her history class talking about the effects of WWII on European mutants with her mom, or in her english lit. class talking about Shakespeare with her Aunt Jean.   
  
In all actuality she just wanted to be around her moms right now. Being with them helped to ease the feelings of uncertainty she had about her life. She loved having her dad home, but his return brought with it so much confusion. All the adults in her life seemed to be walking on egg shells around each other, and it was starting to get on her nerves. She understood that her mother had choices to make. Alexandria could tell that her mother loved both her father and Jean very much, and that she was torn. She also knew part of why she was so torn was her and her brother.   
  
Alexandria could also understand why her Aunt Jean walked around looking as if she were waiting for the other shoe to drop on her head, and why her father seemed to sulk when ever he wasn't spending time with her or when he was with Elizabeth, who seemed to understand him better then any one at the moment. Maybe Logan. Jr. was right, maybe this was unfixable.   
  
Her mind was crammed with all kinds of questions and thoughts, but somehow Alexandria managed to complete her test, so she sat looking over her answers waiting for the end of class. It wasn't until she forced herself to relax and really look at what she was doing that her mind slowed down enough to hear a faint whisper. She heard someone whisper her name but when she looked around to see who it was, everyone around her had their noses to their papers.   
  
She shrugged it off and went back to looking over her own and for a moment there was nothing, but then she heard it loud and clear.   
  
Lexie.  
  
It came to her telepathically but it wasn't her Aunt's nor her Grandfather's voice.  
  
Lexie. I need your help. Can you hear me?  
  
Alexandria's head jerked up like someone had just put an ice cube down her shirt. It had been months since she'd heard that voice in her head and she was more then sure she would never hear it again seeing as how they had left him back in the other reality.   
  
Yes, Lexie, it's me. Please I need your help.  
  
"Is everything alright, Miss Munroe?" Hank asked from his desk.   
  
Alexandria blinked a few times. "Hmm? Oh, yes, Sir, everything's fine." She looked around at her class mates who were now all looking at her oddly. Had they heard him too? She wondered as she looked back down at her paper.   
  
Where are you? She thought.   
  
There was no reply and she started to think maybe she had be imagining it. Then as she was passing her paper forward it came to her. No words, but a picture of a place. Alexandria ran out of the class room as fast as she could and headed for the front doors of the school.   
  
"Hey! Lex! Where you going?" Rachel called out.   
  
Alexandria stopped and tossed her back pack and books to her sister. "Look I have something to do. I'll be back soon."   
  
Rachel stood there and blinked. "Lex, we have history next, you can't just skip when it's..."   
  
"She's out of town on a mission with Betsy. Just tell Kitty I wasn't feeling well and went back to the house to lie down. Ok? Good."   
  
Rachel just stood there and watched as Alexandria walked out of the school and took off without another word. That was so beyond weird, she thought as she made her way down the stairs and down the hall towards her Aunt Ororo's classroom. She knew Kitty, who'd been filling in for Ororo while she was way, wouldn't question her saying Alexandria was ill. Alexandria had been getting sick to her stomach headaches a lot lately, Hank said they where from stress and stuff, but Rachel wasn't sure she was comfortable covering for her sister this time.   
  
By the time Rachel walked into the classroom she had decided to give Alexandria the benefit of the doubt and trust her, but when she looked up from her text book at the sound of the voice greeting them every four letter word she'd ever heard Remy utter went though her head.   
  
"Good Morning, everyone." Jean said as she leaned against the desk and watched the children enter. "Come in and have a seat and we'll get starting where Miss Pride had left off as soon as we're all settled."   
  
'What's she doing here?' Rachel asked as she slipped into her seat. 'Kitty was suppose to be covering Aunt Ro's classes.'  
  
"Miss Pride was called back to London so it looks like you guys will have to put up with seeing me twice a day until Ms. Munroe returns." Jean said as if she had heard her daughter's thoughts.   
  
Once the class was settled Jean took a look around and noted who was there and who wasn't. She frowned at the empty seat next to Rachel. "Rachel where's your sister?"   
  
"She wasn't feeling well so she went to lie down." Rachel said quickly. The look on her mother's face told Rachel that Jean had just done a quick sweep and knew that Alexandria wasn't in their room. 'This had better have been worth it, Lex, cause your in hot water now, sis.' Rachel thought as she saw the look in her mother's green eyes.   
  
Logan stepped out of the front door of the large office building and quickly stuck his hands in the pockets of his old beat up leather jacket. His mind kept flashing back to a week before when he had stood in the large window of the rec room. He hadn't meant to see them, he'd been standing there thinking and 'brooding' as Elizabeth called it, when they came around the corner of the house.   
  
He had seen Jean first. She had come running from the direction of the kitchen deck and at first Logan had thought she was in trouble, but he noticed that she was giggling. It wasn't long after that he saw that it was Ororo chasing after her. He watched as Jean ran from Ororo, both women laughing. He knew he should have walked away and left them alone but as Jean and Ororo danced around trees and bushes he found his feet stuck to the floor. They looked so happy running and playing in the rain and for the first time he really saw them together, and not just as the friends they use to be, but as two people in love.   
  
Logan had stood there and watched as Ororo caught Jean and started tickling her, he watched until the mood changed from being playful to something else. When Jean and Ororo began to kiss, Logan knew. He knew what it was he had to do. It was the right thing, for her, for them, for him too in a way.   
  
One of the sharp corners of the papers in his inside pocket poked at Logan's chest as he sat at the bar of the four horsemen tavern. It had taken him a week since the night he watched them out the window to actually get up the guts to go see Bradley, an old friend of Warren's, but as he sucked down his beer he wondered if he would have the strength to give them to her.   
  
Logan. Came Jean's voice in his head. He hated when she did that, always had.   
  
Yeah He replied gruffly.   
  
Jean sighed at her end but Logan didn't know that. Logan, Alexandria left the grounds in a rush about half an hour ago. She took off, literally, after her chemistry class and wouldn't tell Rachel where she was going. I've been trying to reach her but something's blocking her from me.  
  
The fear in Jean's voice was unmistakable and Logan had been out of the bar and walking down the street nose in the air before she'd finished. I'll find her Red.  
  
Hurry Logan, I'm worried.  
  
Logan just nodded as if Jean were standing right there to see him.   
  
Reports coming in had said that the Friends of Humanity were about to go global in a big way. They were looking for massive weapons that screamed out that they were looking to go from violent bigots with guns to terrorists ready for gorilla warfare. Storm and Pyslocke had spent the last two weeks keeping a very close eye on the leaders of the relatively new faction that had formed in Italy.   
  
They were waiting for just the right time to bring in Shadowcat's and Cyclops' teams to dismantle the threat, but the time alone was starting to wear thin on both their nerves. Storm could tell that Pyslocke had something on her mind and really wanted to tell her off about it, but couldn't. Storm wasn't stupid. She'd been watching her with Wolverine since their return. She was always there when he needed someone to talk to, she was there when he just wanted to vent in the danger room. She seemed to know when he needed to be alone and when he didn't wither he knew it or not.   
  
For some reason this bothered Storm as much as it made her feel better that Wolverine had someone to turn to. She kept telling herself that they had formed a bond from spending ten years together in another reality, but was afraid, or maybe she just didn't want, to know just how deep that bond ran.   
  
"We got a while before our meeting with Fontain and the rest of the F.O.Hers." Pyslocke said as she huffed past Storm who was standing near the hotel window. "Maybe you should take the moment and call home."   
  
Storm looked at her with a raised brow. "I talked to Jean this morning, everything's fine at home."   
  
Pyslocke huffed. "You talked to Jean.. Well how nice.. Did it cross your mind to check in with your husband as well?"   
  
Apparently Pyslocke was ready to get what ever chip she had on her shoulder off. "Excuse me?" Storm replied.   
  
Pyslocke looked at Ororo hard. "How long do you plan on string them along? Or do you just plan on having the husband and keeping the lesbian lover on the side permanently?"  
  
Storm blinked as she tried to keep the sudden flash of anger she felt out of the skies. "What business is this for yours?"   
  
"Their my friends and I don't like seeing what your doing to them." Psylocke shot back.   
  
"Friends? Am I suppose to believe this has anything to do with your so called concern for Jean? Or is this solely about Logan?"  
  
Psylocke narrowed her eyes. "He doesn't deserve this. He loves you and you can't even make up your mind wither or not you love him back. It's harder on him then he lets on."   
  
The skies outside were becoming over cast as Storm moved away from the window and got closer to Psylocke. "Don't you think I know how hard this is on him? I do still love him."   
  
"But not like you use too."   
  
Storm started to say something but stopped. She was right, she didn't love Logan the way she use too. She turned away from her team mate and walked back over to the window. She watched as the clouds that had formed hovered in the sky. She couldn't just take them back now, that might throw off their cover.   
  
"Why can't you admit it? Why can't you just come out and say your not 'in-love' with him any more?" Psylocke asked from behind her.   
  
Storm never took her eyes from the window as she replied. "Why can't you just come out and say that you are 'in-love' with him?"   
  
The room got quite since neither woman said another word.. 


	8. A Friend in Need

The image in her mind was clear. A large cluster of trees near a tunnel and a foot path. It was an image from center park. Alexandria wasn't sure who or what she was about to fly into. All she knew was that he'd been in her mind and he'd asked for her help. The winds that swirled around her slowed as she began to lower herself from the cloud cover she'd created into the tree tops and then came to a complete still as her feet hit the ground with a soft thud. She stepped out of the cluster of trees and on to the path and began to lift the fog she had used to conceal her landing. The park was full of foot paths and tunnels but somehow she just knew which one to go to. She walked slowly, her guard up, something inside her told her this could all be a trap, but a bigger part of herself told her it was him.   
  
"Erik?" She called out softly.   
  
There was a gentle rustle from behind a bush and she stepped closer. Carefully and defensively she peeked around the bush and sure enough there he was. The tall handsome young man with the brown hair and the eyes the color of chocolate. The young telepath that Alexandria had thought was back in the other reality. The young man who was laying, hiding as best he could near the bush, bleeding.   
  
"Your hurt!." She said softly as she knelt beside him. She quickly looked him over and noticed that he was bleeding from a wound in his side. "Erik, what are you doing here and what happened to you?"   
  
Erik smiled weakly up at the white haired - blue eyed girl who was looking around to see if anyone was around. "I.. I came.. I can't control it anymore." He said weakly.   
  
He'd lost a lot of blood and more was spilling onto the ground at her knees. Alexandria looked around nervously not sure what to do. She took her jacket off and pressed it to his wound to stop the bleeding but knew she had to get him to a doctor.   
  
"Erik we need help but I can't seem to reach out to anyone telepathically."   
  
Erik closed his eyes and turned his head away from her. "I can't control it. It's gotten to strong."   
  
Alexandria looked down at him confused. "Can't control what?"   
  
"My powers." Erik said as he put Alexandria's hands over his wound. "Help me."   
  
She shook her head and pulled her hands away. "I can't. I can't do that I don't know if it'll work or not. It.. It was a fluke. An after effect of what I did to the Collector. How'd you..."   
  
"In your mind. I saw the memory."  
  
It had been a few weeks after she'd been cleared by Hank after her battle with the collector. Rachel had been helping her to build her powers back up when she had blown her sister out of the sky and into a tree. A tree who's branch had sliced though Rachel's arm. Alexandria panicked when her sister hit the ground and all the blood sent her mind wheeling. Everything after that happened fast in her mind. Alexandria reached out and cupped her hands over the wound. Her hands buzzed and glowed like they did when she was forming a ball of lightening. When she moved her hands away the gash in her sister's arm was gone. Hank had told them later that it seemed Alexandria's powers were merging in the way they had suspected Logan Jr.'s would.   
  
"I don't know how I did it."  
  
The look in Erik's eyes was all she could bare. Alexandria placed her hands over the wound and closed her eyes. Her hands began to glow and tingle and crackle. Then everything went dark.   
  
Logan had picked up Alexandria's scent once he made it back to the mansion, and from what he could tell it was heading off in the direction of the city. The problem was that his daughter like his wife could fly and their scents became faint the higher up they went. He was just barely catching traces of his daughter's scent as he, Jean, and Bobby headed towards the city in Logan's jeep.   
  
"Anything?" Bobby asked as he looked at the other two.   
  
"Nothing yet. The new presence on the PSI plan that the Professor picked up might have something to do with what's blocking her PSI signature." Jean said softly as she tried to hide her fears. "It.. It almost seems familiar though."  
  
Logan looked into Jean's eyes. Something was telling him that the new force she and the Professor were feeling was an old friend, and there was a reason that he felt so familiar to them. He had known that sooner or later the boy would show up. Erik had powers that he would need to be taught to control, control that could only be taught by the Professor.   
  
Ororo stood and watched as Scott and Elizabeth finished with the clean up after their fight with the F.O.H. The attack had happened fast and luckily they had made it though with very little injury to their team. The F.O.Hers however weren't as lucky. A small smile came across her face as she watched Kitty approaching her.   
  
"Did you get all the wounded off to Muir Island, Kitten?" Kitty nodded but there was a look in her eyes that Ororo didn't like. "What is it Kitten?"  
  
Kitty sighed. "I checked in with the Professor, 'Ro. You need to get back to New York. It's Lexie."   
  
Ororo's whole body went ridged. "What's happened, Kitten?" Kitty explained to Ororo what the Professor had told her and Ororo nodded. "Inform Elizabeth that if she is returning to New York with me then we need to leave now."   
  
Kitty nodded again. "We're right with you, 'Ro."   
  
"Lexie wake up. Lexie wake up!"  
  
Her whole body hurt, including her eye lids, which Alexandria opened slowly. "What happened?" She asked as Erik's face came into focus.   
  
"You passed out after healing my wound." Erik replied as he helped her sit up.   
  
Alexandria didn't want to move. It hurt to move and there was a god awful pain in her side. She looked down, half expecting to see the open bleeding wound Erik had had now in her own flesh, but there was nothing there but the pain. Then she looked up at Erik. "How are you?"  
  
"Weak but no longer dieing."   
  
She nodded. "We need to get out of here."  
  
This time Erik nodded. "I couldn't agree more. So how do we do that? Your in no shape to fly and I well can't."   
  
"I couldn't fly you even if I could." Alexandria said with a sly smile. "I can barely steer myself." She closed her eyes to reach out to her Aunt Jean for help but her mind was still in this thick hazy fog. "Something's wrong. I can't contact my Aunt or my grandfather."   
  
Again Erik nodded as he sat beside her. "I can't stop it. It's gotten to strong and I don't know how to take it down."   
  
Erik looked scared and sad and Alexandria put her arm around him. "Your powers." She said knowingly. She knew what it felt like to feel hopeless and helpless in the power control area. "I didn't bring any money so taking a bus is out. So I guess the logical thing is to find a pay phone and hope someone will accept a collect call."  
  
The two teens staggered to the feet and slowly made their way down the foot path. Neither said a word for a while but then Alexandria had to ask. "What happened to you?"  
  
Erik sighed. "I walked out of the gateway in the middle of the park and I was seen by...."  
  
A loud yell and the sound of metal baseball bats on tree trunks made the two teens look over their shoulders. "THERE'S THE MUTIE! GET THE MUTIE AND THE DIRTY MUTIE LOVER!"  
  
"I think I get it." Alexandria said. She knew better to start a fight in a) the park, b) when they were out numbered, and c) when she was hurt. So she did the only thing that made sense. "Erik! RUN!"   
  
The two teens took off down the foot path as fast as they could with the group of men with bats and sticks behind them. 


	9. Trouble

Leaving the paths and walk ways of Central Park for the crowded streets of Manhattan hadn't provided the edge Alexandria was looking for. The mob of men were still running after her and Erik. The only change was that they had broken up into smaller groups and it seemed like every turn the two teens made just brought them face to face with three of four of the ugliest people Alexandria had ever seen. She wondered for a brief moment while climbing a fence why these types of people were always so ugly. Was it their hatred and ignorance showing though? This was certainly a topic she'd have to bring up for discussion with her Uncle Hank and her Grandfather, that is if she weren't grounded until her twenty-first birthday.   
  
"Lexie," Erik said as he reached out and took her arm. "You don't look so good."   
  
Alexandria shrugged him off. She felt like hell but he didn't need to know that at the moment. It would seem that her newest power had it's drawbacks. She could use her healing factor to heal others, but it felt as it by doing so she absorbed their injuries for a time. "I'm fine, Erik. Look there's a pay phone on the corner we need to get to it and call my house."   
  
Erik nodded and the two dashed out from the ally they'd been hiding in. They ran down the street and Alexandria had just stuck her hand out to grab the receiver of the phone when a man with big hairy hands grabbed her arm.   
  
"We got you know you mutie scums." The man said as he jerked Alexandria up off her feet.   
  
Two other men had grabbed Erik and had him pinned to the wall of the building. He was trying to get them off him but they had his hands and chest pinned so hard he couldn't breath and his fingers were going numb. Alexandria swung at the man holding her in the air but the man just laughed as her hand missed him wide. This just made Alexandria even madder. She kicked out with her dangling legs and nailed the man in just the spot her Aunt Marie said would always take down any man.   
  
The goon crashed to his knees but he didn't let go of Alexandria. "You little mutie bitch!"   
  
Alexandria winced as the man's grip tighten on her wrist breaking it. She moaned deep in the back of her throat as the pain buzzed from her wrist, up her arm, and then spread though her body. "Let me go." She growled as her eyes began to white over.   
  
The skies above them began to darken much to fast for it to be a normal storm. Logan watched the sky closely as he drove his jeep though Central Park, he'd picked up his daughter's scent, as well as Erik's and was following it. The darker the skies got the faster the jeep went.   
  
Jean held on as the jeep torn down streets. Normally she would have yelled at Logan to slow down but she knew how to read the signs in the sky. She knew the darkening skies and heavy down pour, and the strikes of lightening to the east were signs that Alexandria has lost control of her powers. "Logan if we don't hurry they're going to be reporting on the sudden hurricane that ripped though New York City!"   
  
Logan nodded and turned down another street that he knew would take them to where the lightening seemed to be centering.   
  
"You don't think it'll get that bad do you?" Bobby asked from the back seat.   
  
Jean looked up at the now midnight sky. "You've never seen her lose it have you?" Bobby shook his head. "Remember the time Ororo was hurt after a mission and while she was in med lab we had to shut down the danger room for repairs?"   
  
Bobby nodded and then noted the look on Jean's face. "Lex did that?"   
  
"She got to emotional and lost her control."   
  
Bobby looked up at the sky and shook his head. "Remind me never to piss that kid off."   
  
The man who had held Alexandria by the wrist was laying among a group of trash cans, while the two men who held Erik were laying on the ground knocked out. Alexandria and Erik stood there in the rain staring down the new group of men who'd come to respond to their allies cries.   
  
"There both mutants! Get them!" The men shouted.   
  
Alexandria felt something warm grow hot in her belly. Something almost primal as she lashed out at the men who tried to attack them. They threw rocks and bottles that she sent easily into walls. They swung bats and sticks she ducked and kicked out of their hands. But then suddenly everything stopped. The men around them stopped attacking but they didn't back off. Erik looked up from the man he'd just broken the nose of to see a man aiming a gun at him and one aiming a gun at Alexandria.   
  
"Oh Shit." Was the only thing Erik could think to say.   
  
Alexandria froze at the sight of the guns. She didn't know what to do. She could push the one near her away with a blast of wind, but then the one holding the gun on Erik would firer. She could send bolts of lightening down but them, but the men where to close and Erik would be hurt, and with her healing factor drained so would she.   
  
"Hope hell is hot enough for you, you mutant shit." The man in front of Alexandria said. She watched the hammer of the pistol move back and she closed her eyes tightly and waited.   
  
Nothing happened. After a few seconds of waiting for the shot that never came Alexandria slowly opened her eyes. The two men with the guns no longer had their guns. The guns were hovering in the air and the men were sailing into the nearest wall. The rest of the crowd were either running or frozen in place. Literately. Alexandria watched numbly as her father, her Aunt Jean and her Uncle Bobby made quick work of the men.   
  
"Alexandria!" Jean called out as she ran over to the daughter she shared with her lover. She reached Alexandria just in time to help the girl sink to the ground in a heap. "Lexie!"   
  
Ororo paced back and forth in the garage as she waited. Jean had called them as soon as they had all made it back to the jeep. She told Ororo that they had found Alexandria, about the reason for the PSI block, the men that were attacking the kids. and about Alexandria passing out.   
  
"Please Ororo, pacing isn't going to do anything but make you tried. Please my dear, just calm down." The professor said from his chair which was parked near the door that lead into the mansion.   
  
Kitty walked over and placed her hand on Ororo's shoulder. "Yeah, 'Ro, Jeanie said that Lexie was ok, and Hank here will make sure as soon as they pull in."   
  
Ororo looked up at Hank and he smiled at her, as did the Processor and Kitty. She stopped pacing but she still had that look in her eyes that made Kitty both glad she had Ororo as a mother figure and glad that she wasn't Alexandria at the moment.   
  
The jeep pulled into the garage a few moments later. Logan was driving and Bobby was now in the passenger seat. Jean was in the back seat with Alexandria's head in her lap, and Erik sat behind them. Logan jumped out of the jeep quickly and very carefully picked Alexandria up, carrying her over to the stretcher Hank had waiting.   
  
"I'm ok now, Daddy." Alexandria said softly.   
  
Logan nodded. "Sure you are, Darlin', but Ol' Hank here is still going to check you out." Logan said before stepping back.   
  
"Alexandria." Ororo said softly as she walked over and leaned down hugging her child tight.   
  
Alexandria went limp in her mother's arms. "Your home." She said softly. Ororo stepped back and nodded as she looked down at her daughter who looked pale and weak. "I'm in a lot of trouble aren't I?"  
  
"Without a doubt, Child." 


	10. Aftermath

There was a light breeze blowing though the trees out side the window. Alexandria watched the leaves dancing on their limbs from her bed. She felt sore and tired but every time she closed her eyes to take a nap she saw the man holding the gun and the gun's hammer pulling back. Her mind kept playing with questions that had no answers, or at least answers she didn't want. Like what would have happened if her family hadn't shown up when they did? Would she and Erik have been killed? Alexandria shivered at the thought and turned onto her side pulling her old teddy bear closer to her.   
  
Ororo sat in Charles' study with the others as Erik explained what he was doing in their reality and why he had called out to Alexandria, but she wasn't really listening. She just couldn't stop thinking about how pale Alexandria had looked. Hank had checked her out and had told them she'd be fine after some rest, but Ororo knew that there was something more.   
  
There was a sudden lull in the conversation and Ororo looked up just in time to see Charles asking everyone but Erik, Logan, and Elizabeth to give them a moment alone. Ororo nodded and stood. She wanted to check on Alexandria. She left the room without a word and with Jean at her side. They were stopped at the bottom of the stairs by Hank.   
  
"Ororo, when she's feeling stronger I'll need to see Lexie to run some tests on this new power of hers."   
  
Again Ororo nodded. "Of course, Henry."   
  
"Lex, you ok?" Rachel asked as she walked over to her sister's bed.   
  
Alexandria turned her head and looked up at the young redhead and nodded. "Yeah Rach I'm ok." She said as she sat up slowly. Her head buzzed a little but she was starting to feel stronger. "Are they all still down there with Erik?"   
  
Rachel plopped down on the bed next to Alexandria as she nodded. "They've been in Grandpa's study since you guys got back." Rachel looked at Alexandria a moment, she knew that her sister wasn't ok but she also knew that Alexandria was to much like her mother to admit it. "Hey Lex how come you didn't tell me what you were doing?"   
  
She was expecting that question. "Cause I wasn't really sure what I was doing until I was doing it."   
  
"I would have come with you." Rachel said as she picked up one of Alexandria's stuffed toys. "You scared me ya know."   
  
Alexandria looked over at Rachel and felt sick over the look of fear she saw in her sister's eyes. "I didn't mean to scare you, Rachel, and I couldn't take you with me. I didn't know what I was getting into and I would never have asked you to jump in with me head first."   
  
There was a flash of anger in Rachel's eyes. "We're a team, Lexie. You and me. You should have taken me with you!"  
  
Alexandria simply shook her head. Normally she would have had Rachel with her but she was glad she hadn't asked her to come. She would have never been able to live with herself if she'd put Rachel in danger. "I wasn't thinking when I took off, Rach. I heard Erik call out to me and just.. Reacted.. I didn't know what I was going to fly into. I wouldn't have put that risk on you."   
  
"But it was ok for you to risk yourself?" Rachel asked in a way that reminded Alexandria of Jean.   
  
"I'd like to know the answer to that one myself." Came Ororo's voice from the doorway.   
  
Both of the girls jumped at the sound of Ororo's voice. When they looked up they saw both their moms standing there and neither of them looking to happy. Alexandria wasn't sure how to answer her mother so she simply shrugged.   
  
"Rachel would you go down and give Bobby and Sam a hand in the kitchen. They're attempting to make tacos for dinner." Jean said softly as she placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder.   
  
Rachel looked at her mom and then at Ororo and Alexandria before standing up. "Sure Mom."   
  
Ororo sat down on the bed next to Alexandria and Jean sat on Rachel's across from her. No one said anything for a long time but then Alexandria said softly. "Is Erik alright?"   
  
"Thanks to you, but I do not wish to discuss Erik at the moment. I would rather find out why my teenage daughter went off on her own in search of a telepathic call for help." Ororo said in a soft yet firm tone.   
  
Her mother was never one for yelling she would much rather talk things through before handing out the punishments, but sometimes Alexandria wished she'd just yell.   
  
Logan watched as Charles and Erik made their way down to the med lab and then he walked off towards the rec room and his stash of Canadian beer. His blood still boiled from the fight and his heart still pounded from the sight of his daughter being attacked. He ripped the top of the can off and downed the whole can before grabbing another and walking over to the windows. He stood there brooding as he looked over the grounds.   
  
"So how do you think that'll all turn out?" Elizabeth asked as she enter the room and walked up to him.   
  
"Charlie will make sure it works out for the best." Logan growled.   
  
Elizabeth helped herself to one of his beers and popped it open as she asked. "So why aren't you upstairs with Ororo and Alexandria?"   
  
Logan growled again then said. "I said my peace in the jeep. The kid knows I think she messed up but that everyone messes up. I'll let 'Ro handle the rest."   
  
There was a moment of quiet between them as they drank their beers. Elizabeth could tell that Logan was becoming adjusted to the idea of his new role in his family. He could still be father but no loner lover nor husband. She only wished she could tell him the truth about the role she wished he'd play for her.   
  
"I guess a month is fair." Alexandria said as she sulked on her bed.   
  
Ororo stood up and kissed her daughter on top of the head. "I think it's more then fair. Now why don't you take a nap before dinner. We'll send Rachel up to wake you."   
  
Alexandria nodded and laid back down. She wasn't able to tell her moms about what she saw when she closed her eyes but as she felt what she could only describe as a gentle blanket being placed in her mind she knew that at least one if not both already knew. 


	11. Dreams

Darkness loomed all around her. It felt heavy and thick and she couldn't breath. She could feel someone coming towards her and then she heard it, a loud clear click. The sound of a gun being cocked. Her heart stopped, her breath caught in her throat, and her body felt numb. A flash of light, a loud bang, searing pain, then a scream all played out like it had so many times before.  
  
The light in Alexandria and Rachel's room came on just as Rachel sat up in her bed. She looked over her shoulder at the door and watched as her moms come in, they'd be awaken by Alexandria's screams and cries as well. Ororo walked over and sat gently on the edge of her daughter's bed while Jean sat on Rachel's. Ororo reached out and softly caressed Alexandria's hair and face and whispered to her that she was alright.  
  
Alexandria gasped when her eyes opened and once she realized that she was awake and that her mom was sitting there with her she threw her arms around her mother. Ororo held her until she was calm and then once again asked about the dream. Alexandria didn't want to talk about it but both Ororo and Jean knew she needed to. Jean had seen images of the dream and she'd felt the fear that her adopted daughter was living with and had shared what she'd found out with Ororo and Logan, but they'd all agreed it would be best for Alexandria to come to them and tell them.  
  
"I'm sorry I woke you again." Alexandria said softly as she lifted her head from her mother's chest.  
  
Rachel smiled at her sister. "It's ok Lex I wanted to get up early anyway."  
  
"Tell us about the dream, child." Ororo said softly as she held her daughter close. She could feel Alexandria's body stiffen and then relax as she let out a long slow breath.  
  
"It's dark and cold and I'm alone for a while but then someone comes towards me and I see and hear a gun fire. I feel pain in my shoulder and then I wake up screaming." Alexandria said quickly. The images of her dream flashed in her mind again and she buried her face in her mother's chest.  
  
Ororo held onto Alexandria and she and Jean talked to both of the girls about the violence that was causing Alexandria's nightmares. They had always tried to explain to their daughters that even though Mutant rights had come a long way there was still quite a distance to go before the violence ended.  
  
Neither one of the girls went back to sleep after their moms had left. Alexandria didn't want to sleep, she didn't want to see the nightmare again, and Rachel didn't want to leave her sister alone, so the girls decided to get dressed and go for a run around the lake before breakfast.  
  
Logan had heard Alexandria scream and he'd started towards the attack but stopped short when he realized that Ororo and Jean would be taking care of it. Alexandria would need a little more in the long run then just talking about her fears, she'd have to face her nightmares, a feeling Logan knew all to well. He waited by the attack door until he was sure all had calmed down and then Logan went back to stocking the corridors of the mansion and grounds until he finally ended up on the dock next to the lake.  
  
Logan sat on the dock with his eyes closed and listened to the world around him. He could hear, and smell, two girls goofing off in the woods, he could smell breakfast coming from the house, he could feel the shift in the wind long before he heard her foot steps behind him.  
  
"Mornin' Darlin'."  
  
"Good morning, Logan." Ororo said as she walked up beside him.  
  
The two said nothing for a long time. They simply sat there looking over the still water of the lake. Ororo had known for some time that Logan had wished to talk to her about something but between their daughter's nightmares, their son's dislike of his father, and the everyday life of being an X-Man with children it seemed the time for them to talk was never there. This is why Ororo decided that this morning Jean and Rogue could handle feeding the children without her.  
  
"We have know each other well for a long time, Logan. What is it you wish to discus with me?"  
  
Logan was surprised by Ororo's bluntness but then he smiled. Her way of getting right to it was part of why he loved her so much. Logan stood slowly so he could face Ororo. She was still as stunning as she was the first day he'd laid eyes on her. He had to stop himself from licking his lips as the image of her in her old white leather uniform popped into his head.  
  
"Logan?"  
  
"Sorry Darlin' lost track of my thoughts for a moment." He turned away from Ororo after smiling his trade mark smirk. He looked out over the water for a moment, calm and still as glass until something from a near by tree feel into it causing it to ripple. "I've been home a while now Darlin' and I ain't blind. I can see where your heart lives."  
  
"Logan." Ororo said softly but Logan turned to look at her as he grabbed her hand.  
  
"Don't, 'Ro. This ain't good for you and Jeannie or me or the kids. I still love you, Ororo."  
  
"And I you, Logan but.."  
  
"Your in love with Jean." Logan finished for her. "Yeah I know." He flashed her another smile and then reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a thick folded pack of papers and handed them to her.  
  
"What are these?" She asked taking the papers but unwilling to open them.  
  
Logan leaned forward and kissed Ororo on the check but didn't answer her question. He simply walked back up towards the house.  
  
"We're suppose to be running not flying!" Rachel called out after Alexandria as she tried to keep up with her. The girls had made it once around the lake before darting into the woods and soon after Alexandria had taken to the sky. Rachel loved the feeling of flying but she was finding it hard to keep up with her sister's emotionally driven speed. She sighed in relief when she saw Alexandria heading for solid ground and landed right next to her. "Feeling better now?"  
  
Alexandria didn't reply she just looked out over the lake to the other side and watched her parents. She watched as they talked and then as her father handed her mother a pack of papers, kiss her and then walk away.  
  
"What do you think's going on over there?" Rachel asked after looking at what her sister was looking at.  
  
"I don't know I couldn't hear what they were saying."  
  
"Logan are you alright?" Betsy asked as Logan walked into the house. Logan just threw his hands into his jean pockets and shrugged. "You gave her the divorce papers didn't you?"  
  
"Yeap."  
  
"Oh Logan." Betsy started to say but then Logan cut her off.  
  
"Don't say your sorry, Bets."  
  
Betsy stepped in front of Logan to stop him and then put her hands on his shoulders. She looked him in the eyes and softly said, "I'm not going to say I'm sorry, Logan, because I'm not. I'm glad you gave Ororo those papers."  
  
Logan looked up at the dark haired woman with his head titled to the side. "You are?" Betsy nodded. "Why?" He asked.  
  
Betsy leaned in closer to him and whispered. "Because I've been in love with you for a long time now, Logan, and I know you have feelings for me as well. The only thing that's been in our way was Ororo." Betsy didn't wait for Logan to say anything, she didn't wait for him to confirm or deny what she'd said about how he felt for her, she leaned in and kissed him hard. 


End file.
